


saltwater

by Crisp_Sobriety



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, Teahaw, fjorclay, gratuitous beach makeouts, in which Fjord is thirsty but mostly just in love and that's new for him, in which literally everything is new for Caduceus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:22:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25312276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crisp_Sobriety/pseuds/Crisp_Sobriety
Summary: They were sharing a pot of tea in the empty bar of the Lavish Chateau. Streams of morninglight caught the steam, made it ghostly as it curled around Caduceus’ features.Not for the first time, Fjord had to fight down the impulse to seize him roughly by the collar and kiss him.(Fjord and Caduceus make out in the ocean. It's a lot for everyone involved).
Relationships: Caduceus Clay/Fjord
Comments: 69
Kudos: 354





	saltwater

“Maybe we ought to try communing in the ocean,” Caduceus said to Fjord, breaking the amiable silence.

He looked up at him. It was just after sunrise, and they were sharing a pot of tea in the empty bar of the Lavish Chateau. Streams of morninglight caught the steam, made it ghostly as it curled around Caduceus’ features.

Not for the first time, Fjord had to fight down the impulse to seize him roughly by the collar and kiss him.

“Er…” he said, after the dangerous moment had passed. “Sorry, don’t you _hate_ the ocean?”

Caduceus seemed to consider that, lowering half-lidded eyes to his tea –before setting the cup back in its saucer with a decisive click.

“I think we ought to try it,” he repeated. “Tonight. While we’re still in Nicodranas. It will be warm, and the dark will give us privacy…and anyway, I honestly can’t think of a more beautiful place to do it.”

“Cool, you’re evading the question.”

“Because I _don’t_ hate the ocean,” he said, patiently.

“It scares you, then.”

“Oh, yeah. A whole lot. What about it?”

"’What _about_ it?’”

“We’ve both experienced things far more terrifying than _water_ by now,” he raised his cup to drink. “Anyway, we all wind up inside the things we’re afraid of, one way or another.”

Fjord had no idea what _that_ was supposed to mean, and was only grateful that Jester was still in bed, sound asleep and deaf to the unintentional innuendos of certain firbolgs (or they’d never hear the end of it). Or maybe it just sounded like an innuendo to _him_ , considering his very particular circumstances. Either way, he had no thoughts on the concept that he trusted himself to say, so he opted to smile and take a gulp of tea.

It scalded his throat. Typical.

While he coughed, he could feel Caduceus’ eyes boring into him. It was uncomfortable, but familiar --just a part of knowing Caduceus, albeit a part that took getting used to. You had to accept that sometimes, for reasons unknown to anyone but himself, he would turn that strangely piercing gaze on you and lay you bare.

And he had accepted it. But then Fjord considered himself an above-average liar, so maybe he was better protected than most. Example: Caduceus somehow hadn’t noticed Fjord was in love with him yet.

(That, or he was playing it outrageously cool. It could happen. The guy had _layers_.)

Once it was quiet between them again, Caduceus asked, “…Do _you_ not want to?”

Right. Communing in the ocean.

Well.

 _Yes_ , he wanted to do that, but there were a lot of things Fjord wanted to do. Things he wanted to do at inappropriate moments on quiet mornings, for instance. Things he wanted to do in the dark of the room they shared, when he was lying paralyzed by his own thoughts and the sound of Caduceus breathing just a few feet away. All sorts of things.

Communing had become especially dangerous. There was simply no way to join spiritually with someone –to have your connection with that person raised to its highest possible pitch— without thinking of all the ways they might come closer, closer still…

But the longer he stayed silent, the more Caduceus seemed to wilt. It occurred to him that he wouldn’t (couldn’t) have asked this of anyone else.

“I’m up for it as long as you feel safe.”

Caduceus brightened at once. And he _swore_ , it felt like the whole morning brightened with him.

“Really? That’s great!” he was saying. “Then we’ll head out an hour or two after sundown –the lighthouse will be on, too. Oh, man, that’s another reason to do it here! Where else is there a _lighthouse_ for _Melora_?”

And then, with that excruciating sincerity with which he could say any and everything:

“With Her lighting the way and you right beside me, I’m as safe as can be, aren’t I?”

Fjord had the thought, _this man is trying to kill me_.

But then Beau came lumbering down the stairs at last (hungover, late for their daily workout session), and he was spared for another few hours.

The Nicodranas shoreline glowed in the moonlight, white and curved as a rib.

They’d been walking along the water for some time now, following the arc of it until the smells and sounds of the city drifted away. Caduceus had hummed and removed his boots as soon as the road ran out from under them. Sensing the spiritual something-or-other of the act, Fjord followed suit.

(He’d _assumed_ it was a spiritual something-or-other, but now he thought maybe he just liked the feeling of his bare feet on wet sand. He had a certain bounce in his step. Oh, well…)

Half a mile away, across waves like sheets of obsidian, the lighthouse of Melora turned its great eye. Below the point of light it was just a woman-shaped, starless void, cut out of the horizon. Fjord occupied himself in squinting against the breeze, trying to work out the details of Her face.

Mostly it was an excuse not to stare at the man next to him.

“I think this is good,” Caduceus said, stopping.

It was a section of beach identical to all the rest. Fjord nodded sagely anyway.

“Yes, it’s perfect. So, how’re we doing this? I mean, we can’t exactly set up the candles and incense like usua –what are you doing?”

Caduceus looked at him over his shoulder, from where he was already knee-deep in the water. He was still fully-clothed.

“Er,” Caduceus said. “I thought that was obvious?”

He took another step out, his robes billowing like pale green jellyfish all around him. Now that he was actually looking at him, Fjord noticed sand wasn’t the only thing that glowed in moonlight.

 _Oh no_ , he thought.

Stammering, he rushed forward to join him. It felt like walking into a bath, when he really could have used something cold, but the splashing broke the spell, a little.

They waded further and further out. Being shorter, Fjord had to stop first. He blew disgruntled bubbles as he watched Caduceus stride out another few feet, stop, and turn his head to look at the lighthouse. For a few rotations he stayed just like that, the beam illuminating him in profile: pink hair gathered to one side, eyes thoughtful. Deciding.

And then he slipped straight down and out of sight beneath the waves.

Fjord waited, nerves singing.

A few moments later, he re-emerged, dripping and grinning wide.

“That’s still SO weird!” he announced.

Some of his hair had slipped into his face, and a bead of water was travelling down a strand of it. It met his neck and slid down that too, to the clavicle, down his chest and finally into the sea, where Caduceus seemed to end. Fjord’s knees buckled under him.

“You know, you’re not very good at being scared,” he muttered.

“I think I’m _very_ good at it,” he tipped his head to one side, then the other, letting water trickle out of his ears. “I certainly get enough practice, travelling with you lot.”

“To me you seem fearless.”

Caduceus looked at him --and then, curiously, away again, a bit too quickly.

“I’m not. Not even close, really,” he said. “I’m just…”

He reached for a moment for the word.

“I’m _goal-oriented_.”

Fjord laughed. Caduceus gave him an indulgent smile.

“It’s _true_. Bravery is just purpose with an ego.”

“Right. So this…” Fjord gestured around them, to the sea at large. “This is just another project for you, then.”

“Well…yes…and no. ‘Project’ makes it sound…but it’s important to me.”

“Because the sea belongs to Her?”

“I’m going to swim for a bit before we get started.”

Fjord blinked at the sudden change in topic. “Uh, okay. I’ll join you.”

“Mm. I want to try not being able to touch the bottom. Having you there will help.”

There was a beat where neither of them moved or said anything. Then Caduceus turned to face him, his back to the tide and the scattered moonlight. “You know, if I seem brave, it’s probably just because you can only see me when I’m around _you_. And you make it easy.”

Fjord grinned, unable to resist the compliment, and equally unable to resist teasing him, a little. “So you’re saying I give you _purpose_ , is that it?”

But Caduceus was nodding. He’d closed his eyes, wrapping his arms about himself, bracing for something. “ _Now_ you’re getting it.”

And he pushed himself backwards into the sea.

An hour later, Fjord sat cross-legged in the shallows, nervously sifting wet sand between his fingers. His clothes were soaked and he was exhausted, but he found he didn’t exactly mind. He liked the salt-wet feeling of his shirt clinging to his chest, and the heavy warmth of the breeze, and the dark enveloping it all. As if Nicodranas herself had slipped the two of them beneath her tongue.

(He _had_ to stop thinking things like that)

Caduceus was across from him, also cross-legged, and Fjord was having a real hard time trying not to notice the way _his_ clothes were clinging.

(He noticed anyway: his shirt and sleeves nearly translucent, slick against the rise and fall of his ribs –Gods, he was so _thin_ — and all around him his robes drifted on the surface, like certain aquatic flowers…)

“There, now,” Caduceus said. “We can begin.”

He began to light the sticks of incense he’d stuck into the sand. Fjord watched the ribbons of smoke and felt, oddly, a sense of finality. He cleared his throat when it was done. “Well. Good luck.”

“Thanks,” Caduceus answered. “You too.”

He closed his eyes and straightened up, adjusting his posture and swinging his hair out of his face in one practiced motion. He breathed in, and out.

And then—

The smoke from the incense whipped around in a sudden wind.

He hadn’t moved, but to Fjord, it was as if Caduceus had somehow slid backwards into himself. There was the sense that you could reach out and hold him and you wouldn’t even be _touching_ him, not in a way that mattered--

And then Fjord was _warm_. It was the same warmth he always felt in these moments, as whatever current passing through Caduceus passed through him, too. Connected them, to Her and to each other. Caduceus opened his eyes a sliver, barely visible under long eyelashes. He looked distant and unreal, which Fjord had come to understand was a side-effect of locking yourself inside with the god.

It used to scare him.

But now, the way the streams of incense framed his face reminded him of the steam rising from the tea that morning, how it had curled around him, how lovely and peaceful he’d looked. And just like that morning, the part of Fjord that sometimes wanted to reach out and grab things he wasn’t supposed to touch rose up in him demanding to kiss Caduceus. _Kiss the divinity right out of him_.

Caduceus stirred, slow and dream-like, and finally spoke. It was a register he never used in normal conversation. “I’ve asked my question. The other two are for you, if you want them. Since you were kind enough to indulge me in all this.”

The ‘all this’ –the ocean, the moonlight, the _commune_ — was making Fjord feel bold and electric. Actually, not to put too fine a point on it, he was starting to feel crazy. He wanted to kiss him. That thought was steadily eating away all others.

“What would you like to ask Her?”

_‘Why do I feel like this?’_

Except, he didn’t need to ask that, did he? Self-awareness was not Fjord’s strong suit –he was, ironically, self-aware enough to know that— but falling in love with Caduceus was no mystery to him.

The better question was, ‘does he feel the same?’

Truth be told…

Truth be told (and this was hard to think, hard to even imagine without getting the sense that he was handling something entirely too delicate with rough, clumsy hands) he was like…eighty-percent sure that Caduceus did feel… _something_. He didn’t know if that _something_ was love, and in fairness, Fjord had a hard time imagining anyone being in love with him. No one had ever seen enough of him to love it before.

Still. Eighty-percent. Those were good odds, right?

Apart from that, there were no other questions. He couldn’t think of any. He couldn’t think. _I want to kiss him._

He blurted out, “Should I?”

Confusion seemed to bring Caduceus nearer to the surface of himself. His brow furrowed, even as his gaze remained eerily sightless. “That’s your question?”

“Um,” No turning back now. “Yeah.”

_I want to kiss him._

He got a blank stare in response, but Fjord gazed right back, almost daring him to say something about it.

_I want to kiss him. I can feel him doing this and I want to kiss him. If She says yes I will, I will, I will._

He seemed to win that standoff. Caduceus settled back into his meditation, closing his eyes and asking out loud, “Should he?”

And Fjord directly felt Her response. A warm rush of air at his back, pushing him forward. There was a moment of pure exhilaration --and then he let himself be carried away.

Like a wave rushing onto shore, in a few smooth movements Fjord was in his lap. The commune broke and their connection with it, but he didn’t care, bringing his hands to the sides of the other man’s face. He caught just a second of pink eyes blinking before pulling him into a hot, breathless kiss, trying to put days and weeks and months of _want_ behind it--

Caduceus gasped against him.

\--and then he broke away, followed by a splash. Fjord opened his eyes. There was nothing in front of him but the beach.

But he could still feel the slender body partially underneath his. “Uh, Caduceus…?”

“Sorry,” said the air –and then Caduceus popped back into existence. He had fallen onto his elbows in the shallows, and was looking up at Fjord with wide-eyes. “Panicked.”

Right. Invisibility. That was a firbolg thing. He’d seen him do that sometimes…

…in combat. When he was _terrified_.

Fjord’s stomach wrenched. Hard.

“S-sorry, I didn’t mean to…startle you. Scare you? Shit.”

He leaned back on his heels and rubbed his face. Caduceus didn’t move, watching him carefully from his reclined position. With the commune broken that sense of unreality had lifted from him like a veil, revealing a very _real_ young man, that you could reach out and touch or hold or _break_ —

“Look, Deucey, I really, really shouldn’t have done that, and I’m sorry, and I’ll just…”

“That’s never happened to me before,” Caduceus said, quietly.

“What?”

“That.”

It took Fjord’s brain a second to catch up, and when it did, he stared down at Caduceus incredulously. Caduceus looked steadily back, oddly vulnerable.

“No one’s ever _kissed_ you before? Not _ever_?”

“Well, no,” he said, as if it were obvious.

“But…aren’t you like…”

A bunch of information came back to him in a flood, things he already knew but never put together, because he was an idiot: ten years spent alone in a graveyard, a lifetime before that surrounded by no one but immediate family, and a general lack of life experience all around (never walked in a city, never drank alcohol, _certainly_ never…).

He realized all at once that he was in the ocean, in the middle of the night, straddling a very clearly shaken virgin.

It felt like he might be crushed by his own stupidity.

“Okay, well,” he said, voice high. “I’ve fucked up badly enough for one night, I’m sure you’ll agree…”

“I don’t.”

Why did he have to be so nice? “Well. You’re very forgiving, but I, ah…” He needed to get off of him. Why the fuck was he still on top of him?

He’d made the first motions of trying to move when Caduceus leaned up, water sluicing off his chest, and caught him in a second kiss.

It was considerably more chaste than what had come before. No hands, not much movement, just a press of lips on lips. But it lasted longer. A lingering that felt like curiosity.

He could taste saltwater.

“That’s nice,” Caduceus breathed, when he pulled away a second time. Fjord nodded dumbly.

“Y-yeah, it is…”

“You should try again,” he said, squaring his shoulders. “I won’t freak out this time.”

“Aha…wait. So it _did_ freak you out?!”

“Yeah! A lot! Because that was a _lot_! But,” he gave him a quick, shy peck that made Fjord ache with the earnestness of it. “It’s also…very nice. I like it. But I don’t know what I’m doing at all, and I know for a fact you _do_.” And now his face was burning, too. “So you should try again. Please.”

He appeared to settle in to wait, looking up at Fjord with a raw and shivery expectation. Fjord felt like he was going to melt, seeing that much trust leveled at him. _Totally unearned_ trust, at the moment, and they should probably talk about that…before anything else…

“Okay,” he heard himself saying. So much for that.

Still. He decided to take it slow this time.

The water made soft, sloshing sounds against them as he moved forward, adjusting himself to more properly straddle his hips (he told himself this was purely to account for the height difference. But he caught Caduceus taking a quick scan of the situation, eyes widening a fraction, and _that_ …). He cupped one side of his face, brushing aside a wet strand of hair with his thumb. He leaned in close, looking into his eyes. Checking for alarm, discomfort, anything (damn it, he was going to do this _right…_ ).

There was a lot to see –anticipation, interest, and an odd fixedness— but no discomfort. He didn’t _exactly_ seem at ease, but the things Fjord feared seeing simply weren’t there.

But he wanted to make sure. “This is okay?” he murmured, hovering over his lips.

The whisper in return was instant, if a little shaky: “ _Yes_.”

Fjord let out a sigh, relief washing over him, and closed the short distance between them. Just-parted-lips met closed ones. Caduceus made a small, surprised sound –but didn’t pull away.

When Fjord started moving, he made the conscious decision to be gentle. Just to explore, to begin with, with only the barest gradation of intensity. So he kissed him lightly, a mere brushing of lips –and then more deeply, pressing the other man’s mouth open (he had been asked to demonstrate a _skill_ , after all, and he didn’t want to disappoint). That got another small sound out of him, which was _very_ nice. He could use those sounds as a guide, to gauge if this was having the intended effect. He was aiming for something tender and aching, romantic rather than erotic. The kind of kiss, or so Fjord imagined, that you get from someone who loves you, not just wants you.

A few seconds in, Caduceus started shaking. But he still didn’t pull away.

Deciding he trusted him to say something if it was too much, he slid the hand on the side of his face into salt-soaked hair, grabbing a loose fist of it. He curbed the instinct to slide his tongue inside, to taste the saltwater again (too much), and kept it to just this, just a sort of caress, warm and sweet (that’s better)…

Up to this point Caduceus had been passive, letting Fjord do whatever he wanted to him, seemingly just focused on experiencing it with minimal reciprocation. But the hand in his hair spurred him on a little, and he –with an air of astonishment that Fjord could _feel_ — began to imitate his movements.

A moment later and he tilted his chin up, deepening the kiss of his own accord. Kissing him _back_.

Fjord broke away for a split-second to take a breath, eyes darting between parted lips and _the way he was looking at him_ , _like he was amazing_ , and dove right back in, stifling a noise somewhere deep in his chest. Caduceus’ hands came up, fretting in the air before settling on the sides of his neck, holding Fjord in place.

He forgot about his conscious decision to be gentle.

It was getting hard to keep this under control.

Because he was vaguely aware that they were sinking. Caduceus easing slowly back into that reclined position in the water, pulling Fjord over him. Or maybe Fjord was pushing him down. Who knew. He threw out one arm to balance himself, fingers digging in the sand, reminding him anew that they were _in the ocean_ , making out like a couple of damn teenagers, and the image of them tangled together in the surf was…was…

It was getting very hard to keep this under control.

Because his body kept reaching for what it had come to expect, and that was struggle. In all previous experiences, falling into bed (not that this was falling into bed, but he didn’t normally kiss people like this if he wasn’t going to sleep with them right after), with Sabian, with Avantika, _those types_ \--the only kind of people that ever seemed to want him— was to enter a game that the other party intended to win. It was competition; escalation; ‘how far can this get without either of us showing our hand’ and so on.

It wasn’t like this.

Because he had no frame of reference for the tremors of shocked innocence coming off Caduceus’ body. Or the way that same body clung to his through them all, pliant and yielding to him, vulnerable _on purpose_ , like…

Well. Like an offering.

Something about the thought-–the image--the _implications_ —(so you fell in love with a man who, when all else fails, defaults to _worship_ , is that what you’ve done, Fjord?)—just straight up broke him, and that was the end of restraint.

Because he loved him, yes, but he had to admit to himself that he also _wanted_ him, in an all-encompassing way he didn’t totally understand. It wasn’t like lust. Closer to longing, if longing could leave you shattered. Could have you on your knees gasping for air.

It wasn’t about bodies. It was about a _sheer volume of feeling_ , and he was overflowing with it, straining at the seams with it. He needed relief. He needed to pour it into him, in the form of touch, in the form of pleasure, in whatever form he would consent to take it (and he’d never refused any burden Fjord had lain on him so far). It was bizarre, possessive in a way, and selfish, selfish, selfish…

“ _Ah!_ ” Caduceus broke away, falling back into the water with a splash, suddenly limp.

Fjord hovered over him, panting. He realized that he was shaking a little himself. And he may or may not have started doing _something_ with his hips, right at the end there.

“Sorry,” he said hoarsely. “Old habits.”

“ _Ha_!”

“…Was that all right?”

There was a moment where Caduceus just lay there breathing hard. Partially floating, eyes closed. His hair was mixing with the sea foam in a way that was unspeakably pretty, but Fjord was waiting for a response, so he tried not to be too distracted.

Pink eyes opened and stared at the sky. “I feel like I’m going to have a panic attack.”

Not what he expected. “…Oh. That bad, huh?”

“No, very, very _good_ , but also a lot, like a LOT, and NEW, and _there’s so much water right now_ ,” he looked all around, as if he couldn’t believe he’d somehow gotten himself into this situation. The corner of Fjord’s mouth quirked up, despite himself.

“Sorry about that. But…good?”

“Yeah. It’s so much. It’s…I didn’t expect it to be _so much_? But I guess, you are _you_ ,” he added. “I can see why they…why _she_ …”

He trailed off, still staring past Fjord at the sky, but he brought one arm to rest fetched up over his head. The picture of someone taking in the enormity of it all.

“…This isn’t like that,” Fjord said, quietly.

“I know,” he said, in a tone like wonder. “I mean. There’d be no point to seducing _me_. I’ll already give you whatever you want. Clearly.”

A very, very pleasant shiver rolled through Fjord’s body. “ _Hah_ …”

“…And I doubt you’d try it in the ocean, anyway,” he continued. “An error of judgement _that_ bad can only come from something genuine.”

It took him a moment to collect himself enough to be indignant. “I…will remind you that coming in here was _your_ idea.”

“Mm. I’m certainly expanding my horizons, tonight.”

He broke his gaze from the sky, looking out to sea instead. The beam of the lighthouse flashed across his eyes.

“I _want_ to love it,” he said, more to himself than to Fjord.

Fjord waited for a moment, until he could watch the light rove across Caduceus’ body, across his face, slow as a lover’s hand. Once it had passed, he leaned over and placed a kiss on his collarbone. He allowed himself a moment to enjoy the trembling he got in response before he said, “You don’t have to change anything for my sake. I hope you know that.”

“I…I’m changing for _my_ sake. I think I stayed the same for too long. Do that again.”

Startled by the sudden order, he dipped his head, kissing the point where his neck and shoulders met. He felt him squirm a little, and realized that he was _experimenting_. He also realized that he was very, very okay with that. He was actually more than happy to help Caduceus figure himself out, if it meant he got to do things like this.

“Okay,” Caduceus said, in the tone of someone tearing themselves away from something fascinating. “I have to get out of this water, or I really _am_ going to have a panic attack.”

“Uh, right.”

He helped him get to his feet, trying to be as gentlemanly as possible (it felt like the least he could do). They were both a mess. Caduceus’ hair was going to dry curly tomorrow, for sure.

“You know,” he said, trying for casual, failing. “I never did get that last question with the wildmother.”

Caduceus gave him a look.

“Do you really think I could have held concentration through _all that?_ ”

“No, but…oh, shit.” Something had occurred to him for the first time. “Is it okay that like, we broke the commune to ah…you know…”

“It’s nothing She hasn’t heard before,” he said, sweeping all his hair to one side and wringing it out. “Some worshippers _can_ hold a commune through _all that_ , and considerably more. And do.” He relayed this wild information with complete indifference.

“Right,” Fjord said, privately reeling. “I guess that’s…natural.”

“Mmhm.”

“ _Any-_ way, we should probably be heading back. Shall we…?”

He held out his hand, palm upwards. Caduceus looked at it.

Haltingly, as if he wasn’t sure what Fjord wanted from him, he took it. He stood there for a moment, holding Fjord’s hand, his usual easy smile gone slightly hysterical.

“Yeah, okay, wow,” he muttered. “I have no idea what’s happening anymore.”

“Me neither. Making this up as I go.”

He squeezed, and smiled when he got a squeeze back.

They’d already started back towards the chateau, walking hand in hand, when Caduceus suddenly spoke again. “You might have to be patient with me,” he said, and when Fjord looked at him, he saw that he was flushing. Pale, pale pink. “I’m not exactly used to…wanting.”

“Like…wanting a person?” _Me_ , he didn’t say.

“Just in general, but yeah. I’m working on it. Figuring out exactly _what_ I want, and…trying to get it. Like, today, I actually _was_ hoping, a little bit, when I asked you out here…” he trailed off in embarrassment, oblivious to Fjord’s pleasure and amazement. “Only I’m not actually as fearless as you think I am.”

“Hold up.” Slightly giddy. “ _You_ were trying to seduce _me_?”

“ _Seduce_ is a strong… --I was taking an interest in your interests! Beau told me that--”

“I mean. Regardless. You succeeded.”

“I know. It’s _weird_.”

“My my, Caduceus Clay. What would your parents think?”

“ _Oh_. Oh nooo. Let’s not go there.”

“Well, I’m extremely hyped to be seduced by you a second time, by the way, whenever you’re up for it. There’s a _goal_ for you.”

Caduceus laughed, and the sound was tired but happy. “Terrifying,” he said. “I can’t wait.”

**Author's Note:**

> You ever have just like. A concept. And you need to make it exist or you will die?
> 
> Yeah.
> 
> Also I live for Gay!Caduceus in his firbolg-early-twenties going through all the momentous-feeling milestones that the straight firbolgs got to have in their firbolg-teens.


End file.
